Obesity Epidemic

[Teysa]

Using a slow cooker is an easy way to prepare healthy or at least healthier meals. Before you go into work/school throw in some stew meat, some veggies-fresh or canned, your choice-add just enough water to cover the top, put the lid on, set the thing on low and leave it alone. If your budget is tight, ground beef works well too. Just be sure to brown it first. When you get home, you have a nice, hot meal waiting for you. (If you like your stew a bit thicker, just stir in a tablespoonish of flour, turn the cooker up to high, and let it cook a few more minutes while you shower/change into comfy clothes.)

Another easy meal is to take some bone-in chicken or pork chops, throw those in the cooker with a bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce, and let that cook while you're gone. The meat will fall right off the bone. It doesn't take any time at all to heat up a can of veggies to go with it and once again you have decent, home cooked meal. As an added bonus, the leftovers make good sandwiches to take with you the next day.

By the way, neither of these take much time at all to prepare. It takes me all of ten minutes to make stew and that's if I use fresh veggies. Using canned is even quicker. The barbecue chicken or pork takes even less time to prepare.

[Seshat]

For a healthy set of meals - each somewhat different - that takes about the same amount of effort as calling for a pizza:

Put pasta, or rice, or quinoa, or some other 'meal base' complex carbohydrate in a microwave 'rice cooker' with water. Set it to cook. Go away, do something else for however long.

Come back when the microwave beeps. Put pre-chopped frozen vegetables (whichever mix you like) in a veggie steamer in the microwave. Set it to cook. Go away, do something else.

Come back when the microwave beeps. Open a tin of some sort of pre-cooked meat (tuna, salmon, chicken, beef) or a vegetable protein (tofu, beans, lentils), set it to heat.

While the meat is heating, serve the complex carb onto plates, top with veggies. If you want a sauce, add some pre-purchased sauce. When the meat is ready, add the meat or veggie protein.

Top, if desired, with cheese.


You can make a wide variety of different-tasting dishes with the same basic recipe: just vary the underlying grain-based thing, the vegetables, the protein and the sauce.

[Eisa]

^I do that with spaghetti, but I should vary it more. It's nice to just come back when the microwave beeps.

I have a variety of excuses. One that's pretty damn good (or bad, depending on how you look at it) is that I have gastroparesis. All that "eat lots of raw veggies and fruit?" Will make me very sick because I'm supposed to have a low-fat, low-fiber diet. Which confuses the fuck out of me on what I'm supposed to eat.

I also can't cook very well--especially at my aunt's as she fills the refrigerator and freezer up with junk that never gets touched.

[Sleepwalker]

I love my slow cooker. Same amount of setup time as nuking a frozen burrito, but makes enough good tasting food for a week in one go. Meat! Veggies! Soups! Grains!

Shit, about the only things it can't make are bread and icecream.

[Andara Bledin]

There's a quite nice slow cooker at Costco we spotted last week for $30. Since our rice steamer is quite cheap, we'll probably be trading up.

^-.-^

[Boozy]

While the meat is heating, serve the complex carb onto plates, top with veggies. If you want a sauce, add some pre-purchased sauce.

Be careful with store-bought sauces, though. They are loaded with sodium. You also need to be careful with canned meats and beans.

If someone used your recipe with cheap canned beans as the protein, soy sauce as the "sauce", and went ahead and topped it all with cheese, their meal could have more sodium than an entire large pizza from Domino's.

"Low-fat" and "high fiber" are not the only criteria for healthy.

Besides, depending on your choice of sauce, that meal isn't going to taste very good. Nuking everying in a microwave and tossing it onto a plate isn't very appealing to most people. There's a reason why people order pizza instead of cooking at home. They don't know how to develop flavour in their meals.

I'd recommend tossing everything into a wok with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and cooking it all together at the very end to get a good mix of flavours. I know olive oil isn't cheap, but a little goes a long way. And if you can only afford one kind of fresh vegetable when they're out of season, opt for bell peppers or sweet onions. They add the most flavour for your buck.

[Panacea]

Be careful with store-bought sauces, though. They are loaded with sodium. You also need to be careful with canned meats and beans.

If someone used your recipe with cheap canned beans as the protein, soy sauce as the "sauce", and went ahead and topped it all with cheese, their meal could have more sodium than an entire large pizza from Domino's.

"Low-fat" and "high fiber" are not the only criteria for healthy.

Besides, depending on your choice of sauce, that meal isn't going to taste very good. Nuking everying in a microwave and tossing it onto a plate isn't very appealing to most people. There's a reason why people order pizza instead of cooking at home. They don't know how to develop flavour in their meals.

I'd recommend tossing everything into a wok with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar and cooking it all together at the very end to get a good mix of flavours. I know olive oil isn't cheap, but a little goes a long way. And if you can only afford one kind of fresh vegetable when they're out of season, opt for bell peppers or sweet onions. They add the most flavour for your buck.

Quoted for truth. Excellent suggestions, all of them.

When I started having to watch my sodium last January, I was astounded to see just how much salt is in everything. It's what keeps stuff fresh on the shelves longer, and because we're addicted to the taste, makes it sell better.

It's been hard cutting the sodium out of my diet, and the best way for me to do that is, frankly, to do all my own cooking. I was amazed by how bland my food tasted, even recipes I'd used for years, because I wasn't getting the extra loads of salt.

I enjoy cooking, but hate the time it takes to do it right. Eating out is a hard habit to break, but it can be done.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

I don't know how I would determine obesity, because even the BMI scale doesn't take into account some people's over all muscle mass.

However, I would put people on high fat, adequate protein and low carbohydrate cyclically until they reach healthy weight.

I am a firm believer in the keto diet. I'm 5'11" 170lbs, and I eat eggs, bacon, steak, cheeseburgers (no bun), cheese (love cheese) every day. My blood pressure every time I go to the doctor is 90/60, my cholesterol is low. Triglycerides are low. Glucose is perfect. I had my body fat percentage last measured at 14%.

I use fat to fuel my body, my body burns fat. I maintain my muscle. I am healthy.

Yeah, I really could not have said better. Other than the weight and height, I could have written this, more or less. I'm five-six and don't know what I weigh. I'm between an American size six or eight, depending on the cut.

And yes, fat and protein are expensive. This is why so many people are overweight. They're also overweight because government "guidelines" about how to eat healthy are complete horseshit.

I wouldn't even do it cyclically. I have been doing low carb for about a decade. Granted, I fall off the wagon here and there. I had cake and ice cream this past weekend. However, if you get healthy eating a certain way, there's no real reason to stop doing it. Yeah, youi'll gain weight back if you stop doing low carb. Not doing low carb is how people gain weight.

[Skelly]

Yeah, I really could not have said better. Other than the weight and height, I could have written this, more or less. I'm five-six and don't know what I weigh. I'm between an American size six or eight, depending on the cut.

And yes, fat and protein are expensive. This is why so many people are overweight. They're also overweight because government "guidelines" about how to eat healthy are complete horseshit.

I wouldn't even do it cyclically. I have been doing low carb for about a decade. Granted, I fall off the wagon here and there. I had cake and ice cream this past weekend. However, if you get healthy eating a certain way, there's no real reason to stop doing it. Yeah, youi'll gain weight back if you stop doing low carb. Not doing low carb is how people gain weight.

Yeah, low carb is the best ever. Last year I worked night shift, meatpacking, for 7 weeks. Decided to give low carb diet a test. I'm guessing the extreme cold, along with hard work helped, but still, I lost almost 10 kilograms in 4 weeks. It was totally crazy. I need to start doing that again, and stick to it. Everyone commented and complimented. Totally awesome.

[Cazzi]

I've gone low carb too, I'm losing weight & inches, my skin is clearing, my doc says I look better than the last few times she's seen me and surprisingly my shopping bill has reduced. Reason being, I also have coeliacs and I'm not buying extortionately priced gluten free flours, bread & other products.
I've tried losing weight on "traditional" diets, only to have stomach problems and low sugar shakes. I love the fact I don't get hungry & shaky eating low carb

I've always been of the mind that until lean meat and good quality fruit & veg can be provided for an equivalent cost of the cheap, processed fat filled foods, then people, especially those on lower incomes aren't going to eat healthily. I've been there, when its a choice between buying enough healthy stuff to make say one meal, or for the same price, more unhealthy stuff that will make several meals... when you're broke, you get as much for your money as possible

[Andara Bledin]

I've been there, when its a choice between buying enough healthy stuff to make say one meal, or for the same price, more unhealthy stuff that will make several meals... when you're broke, you get as much for your money as possible

Except that this is a false situation. You can buy more cheap and healthy food than you can cheap and unhealthy food. It just might take a little bit more effort to actually prepare the healthy stuff, and even then, only if you don't bother to take the effort to find out what's easy and mostly hands-off to make.

^-.-^

[BlaqueKatt]

If it reads more like a chemistry set then a food item, perhaps you should put it back. >.>

problem with this is companies are forced to use chemical names on ingredient lists rather than common names.

a few examples:

Ascorbic acid=Citric acid(from oranges and lemons)
calcium carbonate=eggshells/chalk(common source of added calcium)
alum(used in baking)=aluminum potassium sulfate
Cream of tatar(also used in baking)=potassium bitartrate
banana oil=isoamyl acetate
oil of wintergreen=methyl salicylate
lemon salt=potassium binoxalate
vinegar=impure dilute acetic acid
Polysorbate 80 is made from alcohol sugar(sorbitol) and oleic acid*, it's an emulsifier used in ice cream to make it smoother and reduce melting.

*oleic acid is found in peanut oil(67%), olive oil(2%), and is the most abundant fatty acid in human adipose tissue. Yet people see a "chemical" they can't pronounce and go haywire.

[Boozy]

I have to agree with BK. The fact that I don't recognize the ingredients on many of the products I buy may speak more about my ignorance than it does about the "unnatural" sources of my food.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

For what it's worth, yes healthy food (well, what low carbers consider healthy, I don't mean what the food pyramid says is healthy) costs more BUT you need less of it.

Nutrient dense food with lots of calories, fat, and protein will go further. You will eat less volume, but what you do eat will fill you up, stay with you, stabilize your blood sugar, and nourishyour body at a much higher rate than empty, simple carbohydrates and sugars. I found I ate less volume and wasted far less food when I adopted this as a lifestyle.

You have to get past the idea that "well, I can buy more food for the same amount of money" idea. A pound of good quality protein may be smaller than a pound of pasta. It's smaller than a pound of cotton candy, too. Think about that. A pound of protein will certainly run your body longer than will a pound of starch.

Starch is survival ration. Humans can metabolize starches and simple sugars. It's one of the things that makes us such amazingly adaptable creatures and allows us to eat just about anything. However, it should not be our primary metabolism. We should not be using out auxiliary fuel source as a primary food source. No wonder everyone's so sick and overweight all the time. We're trying to live like we're suffering a famine and wondering why we feel so lousy all the time. All simple carbs are for are to keep you going long enough to crawl out of the cave so you can kill something to eat.

Eat like a warrior and you'll feel like one. Eat like the guy on the losing end of a long siege and you'll feel like that, too.

[FArchivist]

AA admitted that's it's really not the time issue, it's a will issue. I make a lot of the foods I want to eat in advance on the weekend. .

I don't have time to do even that. There is literally not a single day in which I am not working or attending class. There is no such thing as a "free day" for me. I barely have time to get in 5-6 hours of sleep a day.

So what do you recommend for those of us who don't have a day to laze around and cook and instead are go-go-go 24/7?

That probably makes all the difference. My mum taught me how to cook when I was a kid, and I love to cook.

Yeah, I have no idea how to cook. I once had to ask my wife how to make toast in a toaster and she stopped me from microwaving hamburger once. I figured that since the English boil roasts, it was OK to microwave hamburger.

Too bad I don't have time to learn how to cook now.

Except that this is a false situation. You can buy more cheap and healthy food than you can cheap and unhealthy food.

Unless you live in a grocery desert.